Mr. Pee's Hand Car Wash on south Racine avenue is no longer in business. And with a name like that, we are hardly surprised.

I found the strangely-named establishment a couple of years ago. It's part of a collection of pics I've taken of odd signs, wonders and assorted goings-on--things I've stumbled upon while heading someplace. The pics are more snapshots than photographs and are all taken at the spur of the moment. But to me they show Chicago, for all its toughness, can be a very funny city. Even if it is unintentional. Here are my faves:

I can hear you. "Sure, it's a cool building, Lee. But aren't you a little late to the party? Everybody and their mama has written about Aqua." Well, that's true. And here's a Q&A I did with Gang more‚ than two years ago on Aqua, 225 N. Columbus, for my old Urban Observer blog while the tower was still under construction.

Artist Alexander Calder liked circuses. I didn't know that.But as I contemplated‚ Flamingo, his still-impressive stabile at Federal Plaza the other day, it rather made sense. Only a sculptor with a sense of whimsy, razzle-dazzle, "how did they do that?" showmanship would create a 30 ton, five-story work made of industrial steel--and yet have all that mass touch the ground with the daintiness of a ballet dancer.

When Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America was published in 2003, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the brilliant book would become a motion picture.

The lavishly told tale of Daniel Burnham's heroic efforts to plan and construct the Chicago 1893 World's Fair juxtaposed with that of serial killer H.H. Holmes who ran a murderous house of horrors mere miles west of the fair captured the attention of actor Tom Cruise's company, which purchased the book's film rights in 2003. At the same time, Leonardo DiCaprio's camp said it had been working on its own film regarding Holmes. You could imagine a heck of a film, with special effects that would allow us to truly see the White City fairgrounds as they were--and how they served as a backdrop for an astounding cast of characters from Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass to Little Egypt (a rumpshaker) and Buffalo Bill Cody.

The Truckomat along the Bishop Ford expressway in suburban South Holland is a solid, functional building--during the day. At night, however, the place has far greater allure. Under a zip of cool blue neon, trucks from any point in the US are getting fueled, or washed. A bright spot on the long, lonely highway; a modern oasis for nomads-for-hire.

Imagine the sensation Pride Cleaners must have caused in 1959 when it roared up the northwest corner of 79th and St. Lawrence in the otherwise architecturally-traditional Chatham community. Onto the circa 1920s streetscape, the future landed: like a 1959 Cadillac DeVille--big, fast, tailfins, chrome and Chuck Berry on the radio--pulling into lot filled with vintage Ford Model Ts and Buick Model 45s.